Scientists have discovered the ability of fatty food to destroy the brain

0

A regular high-fat diet not only increases the waistline, but also shrinks the brain. Australian and Chinese biologists determined that such a diet for a long time contributes to the accumulation of toxic proteins in the brain cells of Alzheimer's disease carriers. This greatly accelerates the development of this most common form of dementia.

Most patients with Alzheimer's disease have a late-onset, sporadic form of the disease. At the same time, metabolic factors play an important role in the emergence and development of this form of dementia, scientists note.

“Obesity and diabetes disrupt the work of the central nervous system, increasing mental disorders and cognitive decline. We demonstrated this in our study on mice,” said the author of the study, neuroscientist Larisa Bobrovska.

Researchers studied two groups of mice in whose DNA a human version of the MAPT gene with a mutation that promotes the accumulation of harmful proteins in neurons. For 30 weeks, one group was fed normal food, and the second – food with a high fat content.

As a result, it turned out that a diet with a lot of fatty food leads not only to obesity and diabetes, but also to the deterioration of cognitive functions. of the brain, including the development of anxiety disorders, depression, and worsening Alzheimer's disease. It is noted that the mice were more likely to gain excess weight due to poor metabolism caused by changes in the brain, reports the press service of the University of South Australia.

The results of the study, according to its authors, potentially explain why the incidence of Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia have increased markedly in recent decades around the world. They believe that the fight against obesity can help reduce the number of patients with dementia.